Year: 2023

31,000 Writers On Strike

I don’t know how long the Writers Guild of America strike is going to last, but it has put a minor crimp in my mindless YouTube entertainment. I had just settled into a routine of watching the opening monologues of 4 late night TV show hosts (Meyers, Colbert and the 2 Jimmies) to kill an hour or so as Donna is downstairs doing her daily indoor cycling and exercises.

I also don’t know how close the number of writers is to 31,000, but that was the reading of the Mini’s odometer yesterday when I backed it out of the garage to give it a good washing. Today I also gave it a quick waxing, vacuumed the inside and then washed the windows inside and out in preparation for our upcoming road trip.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Ides of May Edition of SORT
As of Monday, May 15, 2023 at 8:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1967 Austin Mini Cooper Meyers Manx Dune Buggy 1999 Acura NSX-T
The 1st generation Mini probably not the sportiest car here, but it is the S version so there is that. I won’t be rock crawling in this thing, but I will be taking the surfboards to the beach with it. I know the -T on the NSX doesn’t stand for touring, but it is better suited for that than the Mini.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 2008 Porsche Boxster S Bid to $26,000 on 5/10/23
Off-Road: 1987 Porsche 924S Sold for $26,500 on 5/9/23
Touring: 1987 Porsche 928 S4 Bid to $37,888 on 5/11/23

Home Depot Customer Service

A week ago I wrote about our washing machine healing itself for the second time and almost buying a new one. This link will take you the long winded story, but to sum up, on a Monday I ordered a washing machine from Homedepot.com and on Wednesday I called to cancel the order. The CSR assured me the order would be cancelled and my money refunded in 7 to 10 business days.

So of course on Thursday morning they hit the charge card for $598. Of that, $50 of this was for them to haul off the old machine. So I called the customer service number, but the wait time was going to be pretty long, so I chose the option of the text chat. Below is an excerpt:

  • CSR: Excellent! Thank you so much for your order number Brian! I do see that since the order is in transit the cancellation is pending however as soon it arrives to the warehouse the cancellation will be processed for you Brian! I do apologize for the delay this is causing you today!
  • Me: So you can guarantee that I won’t have delivery service show up at my door tomorrow with a washing machine?
  • CSR: Absolutely! I checked out delivery team page just to be sure and your delivery is cancelled Brian! I also post a note on the delivery team page to make sure that it is not delivered for you!

Not longer than an hour after my text chat I got a phone message from Temco Logistics, the delivery agent for Home Depot, informing me that I would get a 4 hour window for delivery and a 30 minutes heads up before the truck arrives. There was a phone number to call if I had any questions. I called it and of course got an answering machine. I left a message, “Please do not deliver this item tomorrow as I have cancelled the order.”

Once again, no surprise, at 1:30 Friday afternoon I got a call from an unfamiliar number that I didn’t answer. The driver of the truck delivering my cancelled washing machine left a message that they were 30 minutes away. I called the number right back and predictably it went to the answering machine. When the truck pulled up I greeted them with the bad news and said, “Sorry you had to make the trip for nothing.” The driver replied, “No worries, it happens more often than you think.”

Wednesday two days ago, which by my count was the tenth business day, I checked the charge card to see if the money was credited back and it was, but only the $50 haul away fee. The $548 wasn’t there, so it was back to the Home Depot Customer Service phone lines. The CSR informed me that I was only on day 9 and I should probably call again on Friday (today) if I don’t see the refund.

The money was still not there. I’ve called this number so many times at this point that I knew witch numbers to hit after the robot picks up to get me to the right section. And this time I got a CSR who did some research instead of just reading something off the menu. Turns out that the cancellation never got to the right people the first time. Even though the HD website didn’t say the washing machine was shipped it was in transit from a distribution warehouse to the delivery agent. Now, the reason the money hasn’t been refunded yet is that the washing machine has yet to be returned to the distribution warehouse. So this CSR says that it should be getting there today and then there will be a 5 working day gap until I get the rest of my money. So we’ll see what happens next Friday.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

There Is No Substitute Edition of SORT
As of Monday, May 7, 2023 at 2:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2008 Porsche Boxster S 1987 Porsche 924S 1987 Porsche 928 S4
“There is no substitute” used to be Porsche’s tag line of their advertising in all print and TV advertising. Or it still is for all I know, I never see it anymore, but that may be because I no longer subscribe to any car magazines or watch commercial TV.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 356 Speedster Replica Sold for $47,000 on 5/3/23
Off-Road: 1996 Suzuki X-90 4×4 Sold for $9,200 on 5/4/23
Touring: 1953 Buick Skylark Sold for $77,000 on 5/3/23

Bye-Bye Miss Apple Pie

Just a week ago I marveled at my free trial of Apple TV+ and how Ted Lasso was my new favorite show. Well, not only is the honeymoon over, but the divorce was just finalized. I cancelled the last six weeks of available streaming today.

The overweight Bedouin seated on the camel’s back was that I ran out of shows or movies I was interested in. I tried out over a dozen series or movies on the service and watched only two things in their totality, Shrinking and Slow Horses.

If they do a second season of Shrinking I won’t miss seeing it, but Slow Horses was a different story because I’m a sucker for British TV. There were two series of the show and I liked the first better than the second, but that was pretty excellent too. They have renewed it for 2 more seasons and when those are produced I might just create a new Apple ID to get another free trial.

But the straw that actually broke the camel’s back was last Wednesday’s episode of Ted Lasso, it was an utter turd. The folks at IMDB who rate the show gave it a 6.5 out of 10. Of the 29 episodes up until last Wednesday, 3 were in the nines, 20 of them were in the 8 range, with a smattering of them in the sevens. There was one episode that was rated 6.8 in season two and it was pretty bad too, but the one before it was a 9.0 and the next two were in the middle eights. If I remember, I’ll look at the next episode’s rating on IMDB.

James Vs His Future Self

As I’ve mentioned here several times before, “I’m a sucker for any time travel related media, books, TV and movies.” So, when I saw this title on Amazon Prime and watched the trailer, I just knew I had to watch it.

First let’s talk about the title, why is versus in the title on Prime Video abbreviated Vs instead of vs. or just vs like in the movie poster? It’s weird.

Great casting with Daniel Stern the the future self, his manic schtick is just right, but… It is lousy casting in that he looks too dissimilar to the present James. He is several inches taller than his current self, but the kicker for me was the pronounced hook on Mr. Stern’s nose was nothing like Jonas Chernick’s smaller and straighter probiscis.

The actors don’t have to look exactly alike, but they could have tried a little harder. I just rewatched Moneyball starring Brad Pitt. There are flashbacks to the younger Billy Beane and the actor who plays the younger version, Reed Thompson, has a very similar facial structure. So if they really wanted Daniel Stern why not find an actor with a bit more of a likeness? The young James is played by Jonas Chernick who co-wrote the movie, so why not get someone with more of a resemblance to him?

Somewhere around the 20 minute mark they even tried to explain the different sizes of the two Jameses. Present James tells future James he doesn’t believe who he is because he is bigger. Future James tells him time travel physically stretches him. Height and just the bridge of the nose? At this point I stepped off the time travel bus.

Washer Heal Thyself Redux

Back in January our 3-year old washer started acting up by leaving the the clothes super wet after the final spin. After trying a couple of fixes unsuccessfully I made an appointment to have it looked at by a repair person, but a couple days before the appointment the thing mysteriously stopped doing it. So I cancelled.

Fast forward to the middle of April and the washer shook itself half way across the laundry room floor on the final spin. The laundry room is on the lower floor, but you can hear the washer walking and bouncing from upstairs just fine. When I opened the lid all the clothes were solidly packed into one half of the tub. Rearranged the wet clothes evenly and ran the Drain & Spin cycle. The next day it worked fine. But, two days later the same thing happened. Then it did it for the next three days in a row.

An Internet search revealed several things that would cause this and the only one that didn’t involve tearing the machine apart was make sure the washer is level not only sideways but front to back as well. Across the front it was fine, but front was slightly lower than the rear. I found a couple of pieces of 1/8″ thick wood in the garage and slipped some under the front legs.

On the next load on Sunday, boom shake thud bump, the washer danced a foot and a half forward with the 1/8″ spacer wood still in place. With the last incidence of a couple months ago and this one, we decided to break down and get a new washer. I went to the Home Depot website and they could have another of the same unit to us by Friday.

On Monday morning we went down to the only real Appliance store and town to see if we get something quicker. The only ones they had in stock that were comparable were more expensive and even then, they couldn’t be delivered until the following week. When we got home I went to HomeDepot.com and bought the washer. That evening during the washing of a load of clothes, it worked just fine. Not fooled, I left the order open.

Well, the next two days the washer acted all normal, so Wednesday night, with the washer still listed as in process, I called the Home Depot customer service and cancelled the order. It has been working just fine ever since.

Ed Note: Check back in a few days for the rest of the story.